True Loves' Kiss
by Tattered Lace
Summary: Dom has held of telling Kel how he feels for so long. Finally he decides he is ready, but will it be too late?


**Disclaimer - As much as I wish that I did own it, I don't. All of these characters belong to the writing goddess 'Tamora Pierce'.**

_An - This is what you get when you combine boredom , creativity and being in a sad mood. Hope ya like it!_

The rain pelted down, impairing the vision of the tortallan soldiers and knights. The Scanrans seemed unaware of the rain except when the occasional of lighting in the sky blinded them. Among the tortallan knights was Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan. She battled furiously, the scanrans swarming around her. She felt a sword slice her arm from behind and she swung her glaive around and ran the Scanran man through. She galloped tp the edge of the battle ground an d inspected the wound. Finding it to be quite deep she quickly bound it, trusting peachblossom to keep her safe.

Finished with her arm, she repositioned her glaive and galloped back into the midst of the battle. She was beating the scanrans with ease when suddenly a huge hulking bear of a man confronted her. He swung his mace at her, and Kel not expecting the weapon was knocked from the saddle. She scrambled to her feet and turned to face the man. He leered at her, his mouth frothing as it does when scanran warriors claim they are possessed by war demons. He swung the mace at her again and Kel ducked, feeling it pass just inches above her head. He swung it again and this time it caught her in the arm. Kel cried out and sank to her knees.

The pain from her arm was dizzying and spots were blurring her vision. She glanced down at her arm almost in surprise and found it dangling limply at her side , the broken bone piercing her skin. The Scanran grinned maliciously at her, savouring his apparent victory. He raised his mace for the final deathly blow but instead staggered and fell, an arrow protruding from his neck. Kel glanced up at the archer and found herself looking into a pair of ocean blue eyes. _Dom_ she thought hazily before she blacked out.

She felt herself being lifted up onto a horse and settled in front of Dom. The rolling gait of the horse was sooting, almost like a lullaby. Dom carried her to a bed and a healer came over immediately to heal her. Cold sparks travelled up her arm and she felt her hurt arm healing. After making sure she was ok, Dom left to go back to the battle. Kel slumped against the bed she was on and exhaustion from the battle and healing combined claimed her, sending her into a deep sleep. Her dreams were haunted by images of huge scanrans with maces swinging at her from all directions.

She awoke with a gasp and sat up. She looked around, figuring out that she must be in the healing tent. Kel looked down at her injured arm and saw that it was healed. She breathed a sigh of relief and made to get out of bed, quickly glancing down at her clothes to make sure they were respectable. Satisfied, she told one of the healers she was leaving and left the tent.

She stepped outside and discovered that the fighting had stopped and that the tortallans had won. Feeling useless nd not knowing what to do, she went to her tent and got quickly changed. Kel stepped outside of her tent and noticed that the healers were searching the battlefield for survivors and injured tortallans. She found peachblossom tethered with the 3rd companies horses and she grinned, _I'll have to remember to thank Dom_ she thought to herself. She untethered peachblossom and mounted up. Being careful not to step on any body's she rode peachblossom into the battlefield searching for survivors. After searching for a couple of hours and not finding anyone, she began the ride back to camp.

"Kel' she heard a voice rasp and she looked round for the owner of the voice. Seeing a man, struggling beneath the corpse of a scanran soldier. She couldn't see who was caught underneath the corpse but some gut instinct told her who it was. She slid off her horse and lifted the scanran off of the man. She looked down both dreading and anticipating who she would see.Her fears confirmed, she sank down on her knees beside the man.

Dom took a deep breath of air, a dry rasping cough wracking his body. A sword wound cut deep into his side, blood staining his skin. Kel reached up a shaking hand and stroked his cheek. He reached up with a small whimper of pain and covered her hand with his.

"Shhhh", she said soothingly,"It's going to be okay, I'll get you to a healer and you're going to be fine"

"Kel, I'm dying. The wound is too deep to be healed" Dom rasped, acceptance settling over his features.

Kel looked at him, tears streaming down her face, "You're not going to die" she cried fiercely, "You are not going to die , you can't _die_" her voice faded to a whisper, cracking on the last word.

Dom just looked at her, a sad smile on his lips. He reached up and unfastened something from his neck with fumbling fingers. He held it up, a silver pendant of a horse with blue jewels the same colour as dom's eyes adorning it. " I want you to have this" he handed her the pendant with shaking hands, " I want to give it to the woman I love, I want you to remember me always" He forced out, his chest heaving with effort.

What he said swirled through Kel's head, "Who do you want me to give this to?" she managed to force out, her heart breaking.

Dom stared into her eyes for what seemed like eternity then whispered, "It's you, its _always _been _you_, I love _you_" ,a lone tear streaked down his face only to be wiped away by Kel's thumb. Kel felt her heart swell with joy and at the same time shatter with heartache. She fastened the necklace around her neck, the metal cool against her skin. Tears streamed unchecked down her face, she whispered " I love you too". Leaning down, she kissed him desperately knowing this could possibly be her first and last kiss from her love.

Desperation and passion laced the kiss, their tongues duelling the ancient battle of lovers. She ran her hands through his hair then brought them down again to caress his face. She ended the kiss, gasping for air.

"I'll always love you" Dom whispered into her ear.

"And I you" she whispered, as she buried her face in his chest.

She felt death creeping closer as Dom's life force faded. She lifted her head and stared into his eyes, grief evident in her own. Suddenly she reached up to her neck and pulled out a necklace from beneath her collar, the light caught it revealing it to be a golden griffin pendant with sparkling green gems for eyes. She fastened it around Dom's neck and whispered sadly, "Just so I'll always be with you". He reached up a hand, wincing as he did so, and tangled it in her hair, " I'll always be with you, watching over you" he murmured as he pulled down her mouth to meet his, the kiss of lovers who had all of time (An - hehe tricksters queen). She felt him kiss her lovingly one last time then he grew limp, his lips slack against her own. She looked up at his face and saw his eyes stare unseeing into the realms of the dead. She placed a kiss on his forehead then closed his eyes. She bowed her head over his body and cried, tears streaking a clean patch through the dirt on her face. Almost as if the sky was crying with her, she felt the rain start again drenching her in its icy drops. She coaxed peachblossom into kneeling (AN- think of aragorn's horse in the two towers when he's washed up onto the riverbank) and draped Dom over his saddle. Kel swung up into the saddle and began the ride back to the tortallan camp.

She rode towards the camp and finally arrived. As she entered, she found Neal waiting for her.

"Kel?" he questioned, taking in her dishevelled appearance and Dom's body.

She slid out of her saddle and stepped closer to Neal, " I'm sorry , so so sorry" she whispered, looking into his face. She saw surprise then grief flit across his features as he pieced together what had happened. He stepped towards her and gathered her into his arms, his eyes shut tightly in grief for Dom. Kel buried her face in Neal's chest, sobs wracking her body. Neal glanced down at his best friend, his own tears mingling with hers. He noticed the pendant around her neck and gave a watery smile_ at least they know that they love each other_ he thought sadly _Dom always said that when he confessed his feelings to Kel, he would give her that necklace. He always did have a habit of keeping his promises._

Kel didn't know how long they stood like that, sharing their grief but when she stepped back she noticed that someone had retrieved dom's body and that the sky was dark.

" Come on" Neal said gently, steering her towards her tent, " Let's get you to bed"

**_2 weeks later_**

Kel stood at the edge of the grave, her friends beside her as they watched Dom getting lowered into the ground. Tears swam in her vision as she tossed a rose onto the casket. Someone started to shovel dirt into the casket and Kel hid her face in Neal's shoulder, weeping in sorrow and mourning her lost love. The last shovelful of dirt was flattened onto the grave and everyone began to leave. Kel waited till everyone except Neal had left before she said her final goodbye She knelt down next to his grave and cried, letting loose her grief. After crying for what seemed like hours, she stood up. "Goodbye Dom, I will love you always" she murmured and then with one last look allowed Neal to lead her away, comforting her as only best friends can.

Unbeknownst to her, where her tears had landed on the gravestone, a green and blue gem had appeared joined together as two halves of a heart.

THE END

I hope u like it! I was kinda sad and this is getting rid of my writers block 4 my other story! So thank you for taking the time to read this and please review! I need all the help I can get!

Goddess Bless

'Tortall Princess'


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